March 4, 2018 8:32 am

A night that most probably had pinned on their calendar has now passed as the Washington Capitals took down the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 in Annapolis, Maryland outdoors at Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. I don’t think I appreciated the full spectacle of the night until it was upon us. What a great atmosphere and fun night of hockey in its purest form.

The Caps out-shot the Leafs 34 to 29, but the Leafs out-attempted the Caps five-on-five 63 to 47.

First things first, the shot attempt totals look a little skewed because both teams basically walked through the entirety of the third period and the Leafs threw whatever they could towards Braden Holtby‘s net. The game was won by the Caps after the first forty minutes and I think that’s demonstrated by the fact that they came out with 52-percent of the five-on-five scoring chances and 60-percent of the five-on-five high danger chances even with their listless third.
Three Caps players came away with three point nights. Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom, and John Carlson each potted a goal of their own and got set up credit for two of their teammates markers. I thought the Leafs had no answer to Backstrom’s first line and some of that is probably due to Auston Matthews‘ injury.
There’s that guy again. Alex Ovechkin with his 598th career goal reached the 40 goal plateau in a season for the ninth time in his career. The only other players in history to have at least nine, forty goal seasons are Wayne Gretzky (12), Marcel Dionne (10), Mario Lemieux (10), Mike Bossy (9), and Mike Gartner (9). Look at that list of names.
The last third of that first line is Tom Wilson. He only shows up on the scoresheet once after his beautiful set up of Ovi, but for my money Wilson was quietly (as if Tom could do “quietly”) one of the best players on the ice, rivaled only by Ovechkin. Did he lose a single puck battle all night?
Holtby stopped 27 of 29 Leafs shots and after a shaky first period, I thought he was rock solid. A bunch of flashy glove saves and a much better defensive performance in front of him. Lets hope this spurs on him for the final stretch of the regular season.
A few games into his Washington Capitals career and I think Michal Kempny is finally settled in. I was impressed by the wheels he showed and his want to jump up into the play from the blue line. His pairing with Carlson was clearly the best on the night and they finished atop of the pile when it comes to both five-on-five shot attempt percentage and scoring chance for percentage.
The third line was not good, but hey this is a happy day so lets leave that for another time.
Finally, I don’t think I realized just how cool this game was until it was over and I was rewatching it to pick up things to write in this post. I am one who usually slates the NHL for having too many outdoor games, but man this was just so awesome. One more in DC, Gary? Maybe go crazy and do it on the Mall?